Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

Ferreira, Marie Aline Seabra

English

The Sexual Politics of Human Cloning: Mothering and Its Vicissitudes

Birky, Beth Martin

Katherine Anne Porter's "The Grave": WOmen's WRiting and Re-visioning Memory

Greenberg, Rivka

Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage

Giles, Fiona

Fountains of Love and Loveliness: In Praise of the Dripping Wet Breast

Katz, Isabella Colalillo

Dziker of Love

Katz, Lisa

The Space of Motherhood: Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song" and "Three Women"

Elbert, Monika

Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness

Lander, Dorothy Agnes

House of Mirrors: Performing Autobiograph(icall)y in Language/Education

Chastain, Stephanie

Book Reviews 
This assertion of personal maternal experience as a form of expertise is a 
significant feminist claim. Throughout Tranfoomative Motherhood, the au- 
thors build on one another's research and often present subtle similarities and 
differences. The result is a cohesive collection that reflects the contributors' 
mutual respect. 
American consumer culture, these authors believe, frequently focuses 
on superficial physical perfection. Only a woman who manufactures a perfect 
product (a physically and mentally "perfectn child) is considered a real mother. 
In opposition to such social prejudices, the authors in this volume assert the 
profound spiritual value of the gifts and lessons mothers give and receive 
through their experiences as life givers and caretakers. As Gail Landsman notes 
in her essay, "Mothers of chiidrenwith disabilities talkabout reassessingvalues, 
realizing true priorities, putting things in perspective, and above all, being less 
judgmental of others. The child's g i i  of knowledge of unconditional love 
provides mothers a vocabulary with which to develop a critique of consumer 
culture " (1 5 9). 
Mothers also use the rhetoric of gift giving to discuss their contributions 
to society. For example, Danielle F. Wozniak discusses the role of foster 
mothers: "Through transformative relationships with children, women healed 
a portion of their community and contributed to overall social reform. Through 
mothering work, women saw themselves as family makers, professional 
caregivers, and community healers" (89). Both researchers and mothers note 
that these gifts are deeply valuable and could, if understood by others, benefit 
and possibly transform American culture. 
The essays in Tranfoomative Motherhood are well written, engaging, and 
important. Theywill be especially helpful to parents who have been marginalized 
by mainstream American culture. This volume is suitable for women's studies 
courses and courses on motherhood andtor disabilities. 
Mother-Work: 
Women, Child Welfare and the State, 1890-1930 
Molly Ladd-Taylor 
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994 
Reviewed by Stephanie Chastain 
Marshall McLuhan once said that the politics was the offering of "yesterday's 
answers in response to today's questions." It  seems that what McLuhan failed 
to take into account was that today's questions are not very different from those 
Journal oftbe Associationfor Research on Mothen'ng 1 209 
Book Reviews 
of yesterday. This is made clear in Molly Ladd-Taylor's Mother- Work: Women, 
Child WeFre and the State, 1890-1930. This text reveals that contemporary 
questions about the role of women and the care of children are similar to 
questions posed since the latter part of the nineteenth century. One might 
conclude that our culture has been obstinately unoriginal in the way it addresses 
the persistent and repetitive questions about working women, and the role of 
government in fostering care for children. 
Ladd-Taylor begins her history with the heartbreaking experience of 
infant death. She takes as the seed of her history this particular anguish, 
outlining the way in which infant death was a significant factor in the 
development of modern attitiudes toward working mothers. Due to the high 
infant mortalityrate at the beginning of thr twentieth century, mothers looked 
desperately to the medical community for care and advice. As mothers turned 
away from traditional wisdom and remedies and relied more heavily on doctors 
and professionals for advice, they reinforced the growing power of the medical 
profession and facilitated the transfer of their expertise to the new experts. 
Meticulously researched, Ladd-Taylor's history charts issues that con- 
cerned parent organizations and women's groups that organized to protect the 
interests ofchildren and standardize childcare. Shelooks at the special interests 
of groups invested in improving social conditions. At the urging of the 
community, government involvement fostered the creation of social services 
and the intervention of service agencies precipitated the regulation of the care 
and protection of children. 
If this sounds familiar, it should. Todays concern with the value or 
necessity of childcare, the fate of the working mother, and the involvement of 
government were serious concerns at the dawning of the industrial age, when 
Americans found that the self-contained family could no longer exist in 
isolation. Ladd-Taylor reminds us that looking to medicine and social services 
for protection of sick and deprived children did not then (nor does it now) 
address the causes of the problems themselves: poverty, deprivation, crowded 
living conditions. These social conditions were seen as crimes against society 
and, if the intervening child advocates did not blame mothers for these 
conditions, they often blamed themselves. Women's groups who formed on 
behalf of children sometimes contributed to the notion that mothers did not 
know what was best for their children. Was it not their desire to work outside 
the home sufficient proof of women's inattention to their children? 
Ladd-Taylor calls attention to the racial biases that have come into play as 
women have increased their demands for work and child services. She shows 
how diverging interests and political agendas have turned on issues of race, 
poverty, and immigration and the way these issues have influenced the 
development of practical and productive policies to protect children and allow 
women to work. Black women are criticized for having too many children; the 
alienation of immigrant women is romanticized; white women are faulted for 
delaying childbirth in favour of work; and issues of poverty have always 
210 ( Volume 4, Number l 
Book Reviews 
connected and estranged all ethnicities. Marginalized cultures have additional 
childcare concerns: children must not only be healthy and safe but taught to 
survive in a racially divided world. 
The care ofchildren and the working mother continues to be a hot political 
topic and the right ofwomen to work is still part of a large, conflicted political 
agenda. Working mothers continue to be viewed as pathologically neglectful 
both of their children and of their duty to society. Ladd-Taylor has documented 
the history of the relationship between working mothers and government. 
Mother- Work cautions that domestic and family issues have a serious and 
complex political history. They demand renewed and serious attention; they 
require solutions of tomorrow, not those of yesterday. 
Trans Forming Families: 
Real Stories About Transgendered Loved Ones 
Mary Boenke, ed. 
Imperial Beach, California: Walter Trook Publishing,l999 
Reviewed by Fiona Joy Green 
Trans Forming Families was inspired by editor Mary Boenke's personal journey 
of coming to terms with and supporting her middle child's transition from 
female to male. This is a collection of narratives written by people living in 
England, Iran, the Netherlands, and North America about living with trans 
family members. For those new to this topic, a glossary of transgender terms, 
a list of American National Transgender Organizations (including web sites 
and email addresses), and a brief reading list of transgender works published 
between 1990 and 1997 are included at the back of the book. 
Readers will be moved by the clearlywritten, honest stories in this modest 
146-page book I was touched by Boenke's opening dedication to her son and 
to transgendered persons and their families. I developed an appreciation for the 
close kinship within trans communities as I read the forward and introduction 
written by trans activists. Examples of the intense struggles and perseverance 
of family and friends are woven throughout the four sections of the book: 
raising gender-variant children; learning from our children of all ages; inventive 
love relationships; and crucial others. 
Each story is prefaced with a brief, contextualizing biography of the 
author. I felt part of a sharing circle in which people speak openly about the 
trials of living with, loving, and supporting people who are unhappy in their 
bodies. While I do not have a story of my own, I live-as we all do-among 
transgendered people and, as my family grows and changes, I could find myself 
Journal ofthe Association for Research on Mothering 1 211 


Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare and the State, 1890-1930

Toepell, Andrea Riesch

The Girlfriend's Guide to Toddlers